Best of British: Salix Finance

INDUSTRY VIEW

3 December 2018

Salix Finance is a company demonstrating excellence in energy efficiency and sustainability in the public sector, while its funds drive growth in the private sector. For every £1 of public funds invested with Salix finance, £4 is saved in the public sector.

Annie Shepperd OBE, Chief Executive

Carbon reduction and sustainability have become a firm focus for organisations across the UK. With this increased awareness in mind comes the question: how can environmentally focused programmes be financed?

Salix Finance is a not-for-profit company providing interest-free funding to the public sector to invest in energy efficiency projects.

Working with public sector organisations such as schools, universities, hospitals, local authorities and NHS Trusts, Salix provides the funding to invest in energy efficiency upgrades, achieving reduction in their energy consumption and carbon emissions, while decreasing their energy bills.

Working with the public sector and offering finance for more than 100 different energy-efficient technologies, Salix supports a wide variety of projects, ranging from small-scale improvements to multi-million-pound schemes.

Qasim Akhtar, Programme Manager

Qasim Akhtar, programme manager at Salix, explains: “There’s a wide variety of scale and size in the projects that Salix funds. Projects can range from the insulation of a classroom or a new boiler system in a university to the replacement of thousands of street lights for a local authority, utilising the latest energy-saving lighting technologies.”

To date, Salix has funded more than 16,600 projects worth around £692million, equating to an estimated 766,000 tonnes of CO2e savings per annum.

Alannah Powell, PR & Marketing Manager

Funded by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, the Department for Education, the Welsh Government and the Scottish Government, Salix loans are available to organisations across England, Scotland and Wales, large or small. The loans are repaid from savings made on their energy bills. Once repaid, the public sector continues to benefit from these savings.

While helping organisations financially is an important element of the business, Salix also aims to align with its environmental focus and emphasise sustainability and carbon awareness. Salix Chief Executive Annie Shepperd OBE, said: “Salix is an ambassador of public money and is committed to using that public money wisely to work with the public sector in order to reduce its carbon footprint.”

Lindy Frey, Programme Manager

Salix’s work reaches beyond delivering sustainability benefits for public sector organisations, but it is also about improving the working and learning environments of the public sector. From brighter learning environments for children to warmer and more comfortable patient environments within hospitals, to more safely lit streets with brighter street lighting, it’s clear that the benefits of working with Salix extend beyond energy efficiency. That’s why it is “Best of British”.

If you are interested in hearing how Salix Finance could help you with your energy efficiency ambitions, get in touch at www.salixfinance.co.uk